Puma Warrior
by Bobecc
Summary: Story about a Puma Totem Warrior Vs Riley and the Initiative. Set several years after Buffy season 7. For more info on Totem Warriors visit my forum
1. Chapter 1

Part One NOW 

The motorcycle roared beneath the big Indian as he turned off of the interstate and onto a smaller, two-lane road. The Indian saw the sign on the side of the road welcoming him to Crews Alabama. The Indian slowed and stopped the motorcycle next to the sign and surveyed the town ahead of him.

He had been riding all day, and was ready for a shower and some sleep in an air-conditioned room. He spied a motel not far up the road and eased the bike back onto the road and headed towards the motel.

Greg Brock was working nights at his father's motel while he was on summer break. It wasn't too bad; all he did was watch TV, play video games, and check in the late night travelers who stop to stay the night. Tonight was like any other night, it was now 2:00 am, and he had checked in three businessmen since he had come to work at 8:00.

Greg had long since stopped paying attention to the guests that came to check in, they all started to look alike. Unless, of course, it was a hot chick, then he definitely noticed.

When the bells on the top of the door jingled, Greg barley looked up from the TV. "Hello, welcome to Crews Motel." Greg said.

"Hi."

Greg looked up because the voice sounded odd, it was very deep. The other odd thing about the voice was how alert it was. Most people who checked in at two in the morning sounded weary and give out.

Greg looked up to see what the stranger with the baritone voice looked like. He had to crane his neck to look at the man's face from his sitting position.

_This guy is seven foot if he's an inch. _Greg thought.

Then Greg noticed that the man wasn't only tall, he was BIG. He was built more like a muscle-bound comic book character than a real person. Greg could see the man's muscles through his white t-shirt and brown leather jacket he wore over it. Greg also noticed that the man was what appeared to be Native American. He had dark red skin and black hair that hung over his shoulders in two big braids.

_Seven foot tall and three hundred pounds of muscle. _Greg thought before he realized he was staring. "Uh… hi." Greg managed to say weakly.

"I'd like a room." The big man said.

Greg snapped back to his senses. "Of course. Rate's $85 a night, check out's at 10:00."

The man nodded and fished some bills and a Texas driver's license from the front pocket of his jeans. He counted out $90 dollars to Greg and handed him the driver's license.

The name on the card was Charlie Proudstar. _He even has a cool Indian name. _Greg thought. Greg entered the name into the guest registry and turned to get the room key.

When he turned around the man was stretching his huge frame. The jacket rode up as he stretched. That was when Greg saw the huge knife strapped next to what looked like a stick strapped to his side.

Greg wasn't sure what to do. The man hadn't done anything threatening, _but what if he's some kind of serial killer or terrorist. _Greg thought. _Calling the Sheriff while he's standing here probably wouldn't be very smart._

"Room 12." Greg managed to say without his voice cracking too much as he handed the man the key. The big man nodded and walked back out the door.

Greg waited until he heard the motorcycle crank up and pull around the building before he picked up the phone.

Charlie flipped on the light as he walked into motel room. He stood there for a minute surveying the small room. It was like most of the others he had been staying in. It had one king bed, a table with two chairs, a night table with an alarm clock, and a TV. Charlie dropped his duffle bag onto the floor and fell onto the bed to rest for a minute before he hit the shower.

His feet hung off of the bed, but that was nothing new. And these sheets actually smelled clean and weren't itchy, which was something of a rarity. He lay there for a few minutes before he sat up to take off his worn black combat boots. Just as he leaned down to unlace the first boot, he heard a knock at the door.

Making sure his knife and stake were still on his belt, he looked through the peephole to see who was knocking on his door at such a late hour. Through the obscured view of the peephole he saw a man in a brown uniform with a badge on.

_Great, I'm in town for twenty minutes and already somebody has called the local law on the creepy Indian. _Charlie thought.

Making sure that his jacket covered his weapons, Charlie opened the door. "Hello Officer, can I help you?" He said in his most pleasant voice.

The Deputy standing in front of him was a good foot and a half shorter than Charlie, but that wasn't unusual, seeing how Charlie was 7 foot 3 inches. The Deputy appeared to be in his mid-twenties, and in pretty good shape.

"Hey Chief." The Deputy said with a sneer. "We had a call of some redskin raising hell here, and seeing how you're the only one I see, I reckon you need to step outside with me."

Charlie was already angry, but he hoped if he cooperated he could go about his business and get some sleep. _But if this prick doesn't simmer down I'll have to show him what a Chief really is. _Charlie thought.

He stepped outside with the Deputy into the humid night. The smaller man motioned towards the wall and said; "Spread 'em."

"Honestly Officer," Charlie replied in a calm voice, crossing his arms over his chest. "I think there must be some mistake, I just got into town."

"Is that so?" That Deputy queried, pulling his nightstick from its ring on his belt. "If I recall, I just gave you a lawful command, and you failed to follow that lawful command."

The smaller man swung the black nightstick with all his might, striking Charlie on the side of his left knee. The man then looked at Charlie with something of a mixture between shock and a little bit of fear, as Charlie didn't wince or budge at the blow.

"Now that," Charlie said, letting a little bit of the anger that was building up inside him seep into his voice. "was uncalled for. I'll let that one slide. But if you're going to do it again I would call for back up."

The Deputy stumbled for words for a second, and then drew his sidearm as quickly as he could and pointed it at the center of the big man's chest. "On the wall now!" Screamed the Deputy.

Charlie just sneered at the smaller man and took a step closer to him. "If you don't point that thing somewhere besides at my chest, you'll really wish you'd have called that back up I was talking about."

The Deputy grabbed the mic on his shoulder as soon as he realized that he had not called for backup. "105 to dispatch, I need 10-94 at my 20, repeat 10-94." The man almost screamed into the shoulder mic.

"10-4 105, 103, 104 10-20?" Came a female voice from the speaker on the mic.

"103 dispatch we're 51 from 663." Came a male voice from the speaker, engine noise and a siren could be heard in the background.

"On the ground now!" Shouted the smaller man, who looked more angry than afraid now.

Charlie didn't budge, just looked the man in the eye, trying to unnerve him. It looked like it was working, the Deputy's hands were shaking from the death-grip he had on his pistol.

In the blink of an eye, Charlie stepped to the side and grabbed the man's arm with one hand and the pistol with the other. He ripped the pistol from the other man's hand and turned his arm around his back as he used his free hand to envelope the Deputy in a one-armed bear hug.

"Now listen." Charlie said into the Deputies ear. "I don't know what your malfunction is, but I haven't done anything to warrant your attention since I've been here, but you seem intent on harassing me."

Charlie started walking towards the patrol car, carrying the Deputy in one arm. "So, here's what we're going to do." Charlie continued on his way to the car. "I'm going to 'cuff you and sit you into the back seat of your car, and then I'm going to leave town."

Two hours later, all three of the Crews County Deputies were sitting around their squad room, two of them were laughing and one of them was not.

"I'm glad I could entertain you idiots." Said Deputy Carl Simons as he stretched his now sore arm. "I'm telling you, this guy was some kind of wrestler or something, biggest damn guy I've ever seen."

One of the other Deputies, Dave Thompson, stood up and puffed out his chest. "Me big Indian, me treat puny white man like butt monkey."

Carl sneered at Dave and replied, "I'd have like to seen you try and take this guy down. He didn't even flinch when I tried to break his damn knee cap!"

The other laughing Deputy, Sean Franks, chimed in; "I might not could have whooped him, but he damn sure wouldn't have took my weapon and put me in the back of my own friggin car."

Before Carl could reply, the telephone rang. They were waiting for a wanted check on the Indian to come back. "Crews County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Simons." Carl answered.

"Yes, this is Agent Finn with the Federal Wildlife Bureau." Came a mans voice on the other end of the connection.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Part Two**_

Two counties down a back road, Charlie turned down a down a dark path on his motorcycle. The path had thick woods on either side; the road looked like it might lead to a hunting camp or some such. He followed the rough path until it came to an open field about two miles from the road.

Charlie got off of his bike and unfastened his bedroll. He spread it out on the ground and went about untying his boots. With that done he layed back and looked at the stars.

_I guess when they run my name Finn will come running._ Charlie thought with a mental sigh. _The guy may be a prick, but he's persistent. He's been on my tail for almost a year straight._

Charlie continued to gaze at the stars as he remembered how it all began.

**THEN**

Charlie stepped off of the Greyhound in New York, New York. He let his eyes take in the sights around him for a minute before he started walking, with his duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

_This is crazy!_ Charlie thought to himself. _I still can't believe I came halfway across the country just because of some damn dream._

About a month earlier, Charlie had started having nightmares. Nightmares about vampires and Wendigos running wild in New York. After getting fed up with the dreams, Charlie had packed what he could carry in a duffle bag and purchased his bus ticket to New York.

He didn't really know where to start looking for the creatures that haunted his nightmares, but he figured he'd need a job and someplace to stay. When he came to the end of the dark alley he was walking down, there was what appeared to be a nightclub across the street from where he was standing.

The dark neon sign outside claimed the club was the "Nighttime Inferno". Charlie smiled as an idea came to him and he walked towards the club. The door was locked; he noticed that the hours posted on one of the windows of the four story building read 6p-6a.

Charlie pulled the sleeve of his brown leather jacket back to glance at his watch; it was eight in the morning. _Maybe someone is still here. _Charlie thought. He knocked on the front door. Charlie waited for a few minutes and knocked again.

This time, Charlie was rewarded the sound of grumbling from the interior of the locked club. Charlie could hear someone fumbling with keys and the lock to the door.

A small, portly man in dress slacks, a rumpled dress shirt with a tie hanging loosely around his neck. He squinted into the sunlight after emerging from the darkened interior of the club. The man looked up and down Charlie's large frame. "Holy Jesus!" The small man exclaimed. "You've gotta be the biggest bastard I've ever seen!"

Charlie smirked and stuck out his hand. "Charlie Proudstar sir."

The man grabbed Charlie's huge hand eagerly and pumped it as he responded. "Earl Grissom, and if you're looking for work, you're hired. As long as you don't mind weird shit."

Charlie raised his eyebrow at Earl. "Depending on your definition of weird, I'm sure I can handle myself."

Earl had the smile of the cat that had just swallowed the canary. "Great, when can you start?"

Charlie shrugged. "Whenever, all I have to do today is find somewhere to stay, I just got into town."

Earl rubbed his chin in thought for a minute. "Tell ya what, if you'll work for three hundred a week, I'll put you up in the apartment we have set up in the basement. Sound good?"

Charlie blinked in surprise. "Sounds great."

"Come on in and I'll show you around." Earl said as he retreated back into the club.

Earl showed him around the club. It was a nice club. It had a bar, dance floor, and pool tables on the bottom floor. The second floor had another bar, a balcony, and more pool tables.

The third floor had three offices, the biggest of which looked out over the two levels of the club itself. Above those was Earl's apartment. Earl then took him down the small service elevator to the basement. It was one big room, broken only by the walls of the small bathroom.

There was a king bed, a TV, kitchenette, and a love seat. There was also a large metal door next to the bathroom. "Where's that lead?" Charlie asked, indicating the metal door.

"Sewer access." Earl informed him. "All of the old buildings used to have them, and we've never remodeled down here enough to close it up."

_That'll be useful. _Charlie thought. "Looks good to me." Charlie told Earl. "Want me to start tonight?"

Earl nodded his head. "Please do. You can wear whatever until I can order some shirts big enough to fit you. Club opens at six, I need you up there at five."

Charlie nodded as Earl headed back to the elevator. When the smaller man was gone, Charlie headed to the shower to wash to bus funk off of himself.

Charlie came back up to the club level at around ten till five. He was wearing blue jeans and a tight black t-shirt. There were several other people working in the club by this time. He spotted Earl talking to one of the first floor bartenders and made his way over to him.

Earl looked up and pointed to the bartender. "Charlie, Cliff. Cliff, Charlie." The bartender shook Charlie's massive hand. "Cliff here is the head bartender. If he tells you someone needs to leave, escort them out." Earl said as Charlie nodded. "Come on, Charlie, I'll introduce you to the rest of security." Earl continued as he started walking towards the stairs.

He led him upstairs to the third floor offices. They entered one of the offices, and there were several big guys, well, big compared to everyone except Charlie. They all looked up in wonder at the big guy who had just walked in with the boss.

"God damn!" Said one of the bouncers, the shortest one.

"Guys, this is Charlie, he'll be replacing George. Charlie, this is the head of security, Tom Franks.' Earl said indicating the short man who had spoke up when Charlie had entered the room. "All right guys, I'll see you in a bit." Earl said as he left the room.

Tom looked Charlie up and down with an appraising look. "Ok, so you're as big as Earl said you were, but can you take care of yourself if the going gets rough?" The short man asked.

Charlie gave him a stoic look. "I can hold my own."

"Good." Tom replied. "So you're big and can handle yourself against humans." Tom continued with a knowing look on his face. "But things here at this club…have been getting weird lately."

Charlie arched an eyebrow. "Go on."

Tom hesitated for a second before going on. "Well, last night for example. There was a guy, had to be on PCP or something. Started causing trouble, and it took five of us just to get him out the damn door. And this has been happening a lot lately. I don't know if there's some kind of new strength enhancing drug or what, but it'll be nice to have some big muscle here."

_Most likely vamps and Wendigos. _Charlie thought. "I'll do what I can." Charlie replied aloud.

"Ok." Tom went on. "Joe," he nodded towards the black guy in the corner, probably the biggest guy there after Charlie. "I want you and Jones by the door. Gary, you're at the first floor bar and Kevin you're at the second floor bar." Looking at Charlie, he continued. "Charlie, you rove the dance floor and keep an eye out for trouble. I'll be up here at the offices." He handed Charlie an earpiece with a small collar mic. "If anybody has any problems, let the rest of us know."

It took a couple of hours for the club to really get going, but when it did there was a huge crowd. Charlie was standing next to a support column in the middle of the dance floor; his eyes were constantly alternating between watching the door and scanning the crowd. He hadn't seen anyone yet who was an obvious vampire or wendigo. But most of them weren't obvious, so that was little comfort.

After another couple of hours, even though it didn't seem possible, more people started piling into the club. It was about ten fifteen, and Charlie had only had to break up one fight. Well, he didn't exactly break it up. The two guys were standing nose to nose getting ready to fight, but as soon as Charlie put his massive frame between them, they suddenly lost interest in fighting and retreated to opposite sides of the dance floor.

Charlie was startled when Kevin screamed in his ear through the earpiece. "Fight at second floor bar, I could really use some…" There was silence, and then Charlie saw Kevin come flying backwards over the second floor railing.

Charlie looked at the crowded stairs and dismissed trying to take them. He started running across the dance floor; his progress was barely slowed by the people he was bowling over. When he got close to the second floor balcony, he leaped and grabbed the railing. Using the momentum of his jump, he swung his legs over the railing.

Tom was out of his office by the time Charlie was on the second floor. The head of security headed towards the two men that were locked up in a tangle of limbs. That was when Charlie noticed the facial changes on not just one, but both combatants. Charlie grabbed a pool cue and snapped it into a smaller stake with one hand and made his way to the dueling vampires.

Tom made it there first; he grabbed one of the vampires by the arm, and received an elbow to the face. Tom's nose started pouring blood. He staggered back into a table and fell to the floor, a pool of blood forming around his face.

Charlie grabbed one of the vamps by the shoulder and slung him into a wall. He grabbed the other one by the shirt, picked him up one handed, and slammed him into the floor. He quickly slammed the makeshift stake into the vamps heart, causing him to explode into a cloud of dust.

The remaining vamp had recovered and was airborne in an attempt to jump onto Charlie's back. Charlie turned quickly and grabbed the vamp by the neck with one hand while he was still in midair. Charlie turned the vamp over and placed his other hand on the things shoulder. Charlie pulled with all of his might and separated the things head from its shoulders, dust filtered through the disco lights onto the floor.

Charlie quickly scanned the stunned club goers standing around him for more vamps, but he saw none. Charlie noticed for the first time that the music had stopped and every eye in the club was on him. Then, the silent club erupted into applause.

_These idiots probably think this was some sort of show. _Charlie thought.

Charlie was now in the security office with Tom, who was holding a clean bar rag over his nose. Kevin was sitting across the table with an icepack on a lump that was forming on the back of his head. Earl was sitting at one of the desks, swirling the scotch in its glass.

"That was the weird shit I was talking about." Tom said wearily.

"What the hell was that?" Earl asked, looking pointedly at Charlie.

Charlie shrugged. "Vampires." Looking at each of the other three men in the eyes, he continued. "And you can skip the denial. Yes, they're real. You can kill them with wood through the heart, decapitation, fire, sunlight, and holy water. Although it takes quite a bit of holy water to kill one."

"Yeah, we know all of that." Earl responded. "What I meant is the way you man handled them. I know you're a big guy, but you literally tore one's head off with your bare hands. It normally takes at least two of us to get one, and even that's a hell of a work out."

Charlie shrugged again as he stood up. "There are some things I'll keep to myself." He exited the office and headed back towards the dance floor.


	3. Chapter 3

PART THREE 

**NOW**

Charlie awoke with a start, realizing that he had dosed off while reminiscing about the past. Dawn was creeping over the horizon; patches of fog were floating above the forest floor. He got up and retrieved his water canteen and a couple of cans of Vienna sausages from his saddlebags on his bike. He came back and sat down on his bedroll again to eat his breakfast.

With that done, he opened his duffle bag and changed into a clean shirt and socks. He then put his boots back on and tied everything back down onto his motorcycle.

Once he was back on the main road, he let the engine noise of his bike, and the wind in his face envelop him. He thought back again to his time in New York.

THEN 

Charlie had been working at the club for the better part of two months. He had decided that for whatever reason, the vamps were drawn to the club. They were averaging two to three vamps a night. Luckily though, he hadn't had any wendigos to deal with.

On his nights off, Charlie had been doing some patrolling and investigating. His adventures had led him to the underbelly of the city. If he hadn't known better, he would have sworn that parts of the city were a hell dimension, and not a part of the Earth that he knew and lived on.

He had even stopped a few more conventional bad guys. He had thwarted several muggings, and even stopped a rape. He had to be careful with these guys though. It was easy to forget that they weren't a bad guy that he could kill, like vampires or wendigos.

Charlie was now walking silently down a back alley. He had heard a few vamps discussing some sort of gathering in this part of town before he had made his presence known and dusted them. He hadn't had any luck finding a gathering though.

_I'm going to have to learn to beat answers out of 'em before I dust 'em. _Charlie thought.

At that moment, a man walked into the alley behind Charlie. The man was wearing faded bellbottoms and a blue shirt with a wide lapel. The man hurried his gate a little to catch up to Charlie. When he was walking behind him, he sniffed the air a bit.

"You're one of them aren't you?" The newcomer asked.

"Come again?" Charlie asked, giving the man a weary look.

"The demon in human skin. The one's that have been running things. I never met one before, but you don't smell human, and you're not the slayer." The man said in a jovial tone.

"Sure." Charlie said, having to fight the urge to dust the vamp right here. _Answers then dust. _Charlie thought to himself.

"So, what are you guys going to do with all of the vampires you're gathering tonight? Word is you have work for us." The vamp said looking to Charlie for answers.

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the man. _This idiot is going to lead me right to this gathering._ He thought. "You'll just have to wait and see." He said aloud.

The vamp shrugged and continued walking. He talked Charlie's ear off as they walked. They eventually came to a, three story, warehouse. "There's no secret knock is there?" The vamp asked.

Charlie gave him a hard look. "Knock and find out."

The vamp looked a little nervous now. He looked from Charlie to the door a few times, and finally gave a hesitant rap on the metal door. There was silence for a few minutes, and then the door opened.

Charlie's blood immediately began to boil. He couldn't explain how, but he could usually tell if someone was a wendigo when he was standing next to one. And the man blocking the doorway was definitely the wendigo. Charlie was using every bit of self-control he could muster to not gut the wendigo where he stood.

When the man moved to the side and ushered them in, he was glad he had controlled himself. He could have handled the vamp and the wendigo at the door, and even the two other wendigos in the front room. But, even though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he knew he wouldn't have been able to take them and the hundred or so vamps gathered in the large, central area of the warehouse.

Charlie moved to the back of the crowd, trying not to draw attention to himself. The three wendigos from the front room came in and took positions around the room. Another man came out onto a platform that was situated towards the front of the room.

_Vamp or wendigo I wonder._ Charlie thought looking towards the man on the stage. The man was wearing a dark, olive colored suit with a tan shirt and olive tie.

"Gentlemen." The man in the suit said loudly, letting the acoustics carry his voice across the warehouse. "I'm glad you could all make it. I know you're all here under the pretense that we have work for you."

He paused to look over the nods of the crowd. "It's not so much work we're going to offer you, more of a revolution." The vamps in the crowd looked confused, as the man continued. "You have always had the means to control this city, and now, you have the leadership to provide the motivation. If you decide to follow us, we can lead you towards an age where we can rule this city, and then this continent, and finally, the world." With this, the vamps roared in excitement.

"I'm glad to see this appeals to you." The man continued once the noise had subsided. "Everyone return here in two nights and assignments will be handed out." The man stepped off of the stage and exited through a side door, the wendigos followed him.

The vampires talked among themselves for a bit and started slowly filtering out the doors. Charlie made his way towards the door the man and the wendigos had used. The only thing he saw when he got into the alley that the door led to was a silver Hummer with tinted windows. The rear driver's side window came down.

The man in the suit was looking directly at Charlie. "Come." He instructed Charlie, with a wave of his hand. Charlie made another glance around the alley, not spotting anything, he started towards the Hummer.

As Charlie stepped closer to the man, his suspicions were confirmed, the man was a wendigo, and whatever sixth sense allowed him to identify wendigos went wild. He started to grow uneasy.

"Relax, warrior." The man said from his seat. "If I had wanted to harm you today, you would have been eviscerated in the warehouse." Seeing the look of surprise on Charlie's face, the man continued. "Oh don't look so surprised. You can sense us, is it not plausible that one as old and powerful as I would be able to sense a Totem Warrior when he is in relatively close proximity to one?"

Charlie's features went from surprised to angry. "I'm going to kill you."

The man laughed heartedly. "We all have our day warrior. But today is not it for either of us." With that, the man rolled up his window and the silver Hummer eased out of the alleyway and onto the street.

_Well, that could have gone a lot worse. _Charlie thought.

The next night Charlie was working the door to the club. They hadn't had any vamps yet tonight, but Charlie knew that it was only a matter of time. Truth to be told, Charlie looked forward to the nightly dusting, even if it was only one or two a night.

They had, so far, had the normal crowd come in. All different sorts of people, from all different walks of life. But mostly the already half-drunk college club goers. Then a group came in that aroused Charlie's suspicions.

There were five guys and one girl. All appeared to be in their mid twenties. The guys all wore pressed button up shirts and pressed khaki slacks. The girl wore a tight pair of blue jeans and a blue and black-stripped sweater. And they all appeared to be sober.

This was definitely not the normal crowd for this club. They were cleaner, more alert, and a lot more sober than the usual crowd. But it wasn't entirely unheard of for lost frat boys and sorority sisters to stumble upon clubs such as these. Charlie had the feeling though, that these weren't lost preps. They paid their admission and started mingling into the crowd.

Charlie's first thought was that maybe they were vampires, but he didn't think so. And they weren't wendigos, he would have been able to tell that when they walked past him. Charlie finally decided that he was just being paranoid and turned his attention back to the people coming in the door.

A few minutes later, three men entered together. Charlie immediately suspected them to be vampires. Their skin was pale, and their clothes were about 10 years out of date.

Charlie couldn't do anything yet though. He had already had an embarrassing experience when he attacked a suspected vamp that had turned out to just be a Goth kid. The suspected vamps paid their admission and mingled into the crowd.

Wanting to keep close tabs on the suspected vamps, Charlie called another bouncer to watch the door, while he roamed the dance floor. He spotted one of the clean-cut kids again. The guy had what looked like a cell phone, with a speaker running to his ear.

The guy was holding the phone about chest level, staring intently at the screen, pushing a number every now and then. He suddenly turned and looked from the phone to Charlie. He then said something into the phone, and seconds later, the other guys and the girl were standing beside him. They said something to each other, but Charlie couldn't hear what it was over the deafening noise of the music.

Suddenly Charlie heard Kevin in his earpiece. "Fang fight by the first floor bar, Charlie." The other bouncers had quit trying to interfere with vamp fights on the nights Charlie was working.

"On my way." Charlie replied as he made his way through the crowd to the bar. He was expecting to see the three suspected vamps when he arrived, but there were two different vamps that he must have missed coming in.

They were trading blows at a blinding pace, not caring who or what got in their way. Charlie waded into the fray, grabbing both vamps by their necks. His fingers almost touched, as he wrapped his hands around their necks. He slammed their heads together with all of his might.

The one in his left hand must have had its spinal cord severed from the impact, because Charlie was now holding a fist full of dust. The other was unconscious. Charlie pulled the staked from his back pocket and dusted him.

When Charlie went back to the dance floor, he couldn't locate the clean-cut kids. He did, however, notice the three suspected vamps heading discreetly towards the exit. The rest of the night passed quietly.

The next morning, well morning for Charlie, it was almost noon; Charlie took the elevator up to the first floor and exited the club through the side door. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the harsh sunlight, after exiting the dark club.

He put one arm, then the other through his brown leather jacket, and then started walking down the alley. As he drew near the end of the alley, two guys stepped into the mouth of the alley from the street. Charlie then heard more movement behind him. He slightly cocked his head; there was another guy and a girl behind him. It then dawned on his that these were the same people he had seen in the club the night before.

"Mr. Proudstar." One of the men at the end of the alley stated. He and the man beside him walked slowly towards Charlie. "How'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Charlie replied in a low voice.

"That question has one of two answers." Said the speaker in front of him. "We figure that you're either a demon in human form who has developed an airtight human identity, or someone who has been using the occult to augment himself. Either way, my question still stands. How did you do it?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but you're wrong all the way around." Charlie replied, doing his best to keep his eyes and ears on all of his unnamed visitors.

"That's where you're the one who's wrong." Chimed in the female standing behind him. "You are the kind of thing that is exactly our business."

"So now I'm a thing?" Charlie asked, turning so that his sides were to the two groups, instead of one group to the front and one to the back.

"As far as we know." Said the man who had spoke earlier. "You're not offering a lot of explanations here."

"I don't owe you an explanation, or anything else." Charlie said looking back to the man.

"Again, you're wrong." Said the woman. "This is a free country, for humans. Not demons."

"I am human." Charlie snapped back, not liking where this conversation was heading. "Just because I could kick all of your asses without breaking a sweat, does not make me un-human."

"That's not what our experts and instruments say." The woman said.

"Luckily for you though, our superiors think you could be useful." The man stated. "You have two choices, join us or be detained."

"Not interested in joining anything." Charlie said, widening his stance. "You the ones who are going to try and take me in?"

"Sure are." The woman said as all five of them started closing in.

The man standing next to the woman, a well-built man with a red flattop, was the first to get into Charlie's striking distance. Charlie lashed out with a sidekick, catching the redhead in the stomach, sending him flying down the alley. Charlie was sure that he at least broke a rib.

Charlie then whirled and grabbed one the men who had been silent through the whole exchange by the shirt. He picked him up over his head and threw him into the other silent man. Both men rolled into the alley wall hard enough to bring a white dust out of the bricks.

Charlie was struck in the kidneys from behind. He reached over his shoulder and grabbed the woman by the hair. He flipped her onto the ground in front of him. He could feel the battle rage building inside him. It was a rage that usually only rose when he was in an emotional battle, or fighting a tough wendigo.

Forgetting all about self-control, Charlie brought his leg up to stomp on the woman's neck. He heard a yell from in front of him, and looked up just in time to see the male speaker tackle him. He hadn't realized until the man was on top of him just how big he was. He wasn't muscled up, he had more of an athletic build, but he was very tall. But not near as tall as Charlie.

The man punched Charlie in the face three times before Charlie could register what was happening. It was the hardest Charlie had ever been hit by a human. Charlie could feel blood in his mouth and running out of one nostril.

_Maybe this guy isn't human. _Charlie thought.

Charlie shoved his legs up, sending the man flying down the alley. Charlie quickly got to his feet, and saw the man roll into a combat stance from his flight. The two men stared each other down for a minute. Then they both moved to close the distance at the same time.

Charlie threw a jab that the man deftly deflected with an open hand, and answered with a roundhouse punch aimed at Charlie's head. Charlie grabbed the fist in his palm and turned the mans arm around his back, hooking another arm around the man's neck.

"As I said, I'm not interested in anything you're offering." Charlie almost whispered into the man's ear. Charlie then put pressure on the man's neck with his arm. Charlie waited until the man had stopped moving, and then let him slide to the ground.

Charlie checked to see if the man was still alive. Satisfied that he was, Charlie quickly reached into the man's back pants pocket and retrieved his wallet. Charlie took a quick glance at the others from the group. They all seemed to be ok, the woman was conscious, but looked groggy. Charlie quickly made his way out of the alley, and lost himself in the crowd of pedestrians.


	4. Chapter 4

PART FOUR 

**NOW**

Later that after noon, Charlie pulled his motorcycle into a roadside gas station. He filled the bike up with gas, and went in to pay the cashier. He paid cash for the gas, a sandwich and a Coke. He leaned against the side of the building as he ate his lunch.

_This place is so different from New York. _Charlie thought, looking around at the small houses that dotted the back road here and there.

_Even Baltimore was different from New York. _Charlie thought, thinking of his mostly misspent youth in the New England state.

As he was getting back on his bike, Charlie remembered back to New York again.

THEN 

After Charlie had walked several blocks from his encounter with the mystery men in the alley, he ducked into a corner pizzeria. He made his way to the back of the restaurant, sliding into a back corner booth. From his seat he could see the door, but couldn't bee seen from the sidewalk outside.

The waitress, whose name tag stated that her name was Joy, took his order and promised to be back soon with his drink. He reached into his jacket pocket and removed the wallet he had lifted from the man in the alley.

A Military I.D. stated that his name was Riley Finn. Under the branch of service field, the I.D. read "Specialized." The rest of the wallet was contained about a hundred dollars cash, a Visa card, and a folded picture.

_Well, that confirms the Government man theory. _Charlie thought.

Charlie pulled the picture out and unfolded it. The face of it was worn and creased doubtless from being folded in the wallet for quite some time. The picture was of a young, blond girl. She was pretty, and slim. The back read 'Buffy S.'

_Weird, I would have sworn by his reaction that the girl from the alley was his. Maybe Mr. Finn has his rough and tumble commando girl at work, and nice normal chicky at home. _Charlie was considering when the waitress brought his drink.

Charlie thought about the agents as he ate his pizza. He hoped that he had scared them off, but he somehow doubted it. They would most likely be back to cause more trouble for him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That afternoon Charlie was heading back to his room at the club to get ready to crash the vamp/wendigo rendezvous at the warehouse. He already had on his usual wooden stake and knife.

Charlie pulled a large green duffle bag from under his bed. The first thing he pulled out was a tomahawk. The tomahawk was the only tangible thing he had left of his Native American heritage. It had a large stone head, sharpened to a fine edge, and had several red stripes and a red cat paw painted on it. The stone head was strapped to a large wooden handle, which was sharpened to a point on the end. Charlie took the tomahawk and stuck it into his belt.

The next thing he pulled from the bag was a large battle-ax. It had a big curved blade that was attached to a thick wooden handle, which had dried leather over where his hands rested on the wood. Charlie slid his arms into a leather harness that was designed to hold the battle-ax on his back.

With that done, Charlie took the elevator to the first floor of the club. When he exited the elevator, he noticed Tom and Kevin playing cards at a table near the bar. Tom looked up and saw Charlie.

"We going to war?" Tom asked Charlie.

"Some of us are always at war." Charlie replied.

Tom gave him a questioning look. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked Charlie.

Charlie shrugged. "I'll be at war until they're all dead."

Tom nodded. "Need some help? We could open late tonight."

Charlie shook his head. "You guys should be able to hold the fort here without me, you seemed to have done a pretty good job before I started here." With that, Charlie walked out of the side door without saying another word.

It was still daylight when Charlie reached the abandoned warehouse. He stood back in the shadows of a neighboring warehouse and studied the building that would house this evenings festivities. He was trying to determine where he would enter the building. He finally decided to enter the building he was standing next to, make his way to the roof, and jump to the roof of the warehouse where the meeting was going to be.

This warehouse was more desolate than the one he had been in two nights before. The only thing in the building was some trash and a few broken boxes. He found the set of stairs that led to the roof and made his way there. Once on the roof, he judged the distance between the buildings.

It would be an almost impossible jump for most normal humans. Charlie got a running start and made a running landing onto the next roof. He stood still for a few moments once he had landed to be sure that no one was moving about in the building.

He knew there wouldn't be any vamps yet, it was still daylight, even thought he sun was starting to dip behind the horizon. But wendigos didn't have an aversion to sunlight. He saw a set of large skylights in the middle of the roof. He made his way to them and peered into the building.

He saw two men, who he assumed to be wendigos, sitting on some boxes that had not been there the night before. Both men were smoking and talking to each other. Charlie saw that one of the panes of the large skylight was broken. There was a large support beam that ran horizontally the length of the building.

Charlie quietly moved to the broken pane and lowered him self onto the beam. He dropped to his belly and crawled as close to directly above the men as he could. Along with enhanced physical abilities, Charlie also had hearing that bordered on the superhuman.

'I'm just glad we're starting, I'm so tired of waiting." Charlie heard one of them said.

"Thing's this big take time." The other answered.

Charlie listened to the men talk for about an hour. They mostly discussed how easy it was to get vamps to agree to be grunts. But the conversation also wondered to other things such as how easy of a hunting ground New York was, to exchanging stories about their personal kills.

When the sun had finally disappeared, Charlie heard a vehicle pull into the alley next to the building. He heard four doors open and shut, and shortly he saw the man in the suit and three more men enter through a side door. They were soon under the beam he was on and out of his sight.

"Are we ready gentlemen?" The man in the suit asked

One of the men who had been there smoking answered him. "Yes sir. The weapons and armor are here. The diversions have been set up and the vamps stationed at them are just waiting on your signal."

Charlie hoped that he was far enough away that the wendigo in the suit wouldn't be able to sense him.

He heard the wendigo in the suit answer. "Good, tonight is the beginning of the end for humankind. I want two of you at the door, two of you here by the crates and two of you on stage with me."

Six voices all replied "Yes sir."

Charlie could see two of the wendigos move to stand by the big double-doors at the back of the building. He also saw the wendigo in the suit and two others to move to the stage at the front of building.

It didn't take long for the first of the vamps to show up. After about forty-five minutes, the spacious warehouse was packed with vampires. The wendigo in the suit stepped to the edge of the stage.

"Hello." The wendigo in the suit stated to the crowd. The vamps quieted down at the sound of his voice. "I'm glad you all decided to show back up."

Charlie decided that it was now or never, and threw himself off of the beam, aiming his fall towards the stage. He gave full-throated battle cry as he pulled his ax in mid-air. He landed on his feet at the front of the stage.

"This ends here!" He shouted at the wendigo in the suit.

The wendigo smiled at Charlie. "I'm afraid not warrior. I knew you would come. In fact, I counted on it." His facial features stretched as his jaws elongated and claws sprung from his fingertips. "The blood of a totem is required to begin my campaign." The wendigo in the suit looked to his compatriots on the stage. "He's mine, let no one interfere." The wendigos on the stage nodded as the one in the suit turned to face Charlie again. Charlie hefted his ax in one hand as he stared at the wendigo.

The wendigo lunged at Charlie, who side stepped and attempted to bring the ax around to bear on the wendigos neck. The wendigo brought his hand around and knocked the ax off of its mark. Charlie snapped his left leg out and caught the still bent over wendigo in the mouth, spinning him across the stage. The wendigo still managed to land on his feet, and he turned to hiss at Charlie.

The vamps in the crowd were cheering the wendigo on with shouts of encouragement. A few of the vamps had to be restrained from joining the fight by the wendigos on the stage and the others who had moved into the crowd.

Charlie lifted the ax over his head and jumped towards the wendigo. The wendigo leaned into Charlie's jump and struck him in the chest with an open hand, sending him back to the other side of the stage; his ax flew out of his hand and landed off stage somewhere.

Charlie quickly reached down and withdrew his tomahawk. It was a little better suited for one-on-one combat, while the ax was better against crowds. Charlie let loose with another battle cry as he threw the tomahawk with all of his might while he moved closer to the wendigo. The tomahawk found its mark, and buried itself deeply into the wendigos chest.

The wendigo doubled over for a moment. It wouldn't kill the wendigo, Charlie knew, but it would take him a second to recover. Charlie reached forward and grabbed the things head with both hands. He twisted so hard that the whole body flipped around as the neck emitted a loud snap.

The wendigo gave a shudder and then lay still. Charlie quickly reached down and retrieved his tomahawk with one hand, and grabbed the dead wendigos arm with the other hand. He flung the body into the middle of the crowd. The vamps gave him a confused look.

Suddenly the body erupted into white flames. Several vampires caught fire, and the building was consumed with chaos. At first Charlie thought it was because of the fire, and then he noticed all of the men in body armor with guns rushing into the building.

Charlie used the distraction to jump off of the stage and retrieve his ax as he stuffed his tomahawk back into his belt. He jumped back onto the stage and found the two of the wendigos still there. He gave a battle cry that could be heard over the sounds of the fight as he charged the two monsters. They both turned to look as he swung the ax. The blade was swung with enough might to behead both in one swing. Before the bodies could even fall to the ground, he pushed them into the crowd, setting even more of the vamps on fire.

Charlie paused long enough for it to register that the men in armor were shooting the vamps with their guns, and they were dusting. _I wonder how in the hell they're doing that! _Charlie thought. There was a mixture of smoke from the burning vamps and dust from the dead one's choking the air inside the warehouse.

Charlie suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg. When he looked down, there was a hard wooden shaft about four inches long and about the same thickness as a pencil protruding from his leg. He turned the pain into anger and catapulted off of the stage into the crowd of vampires.

He preformed a steady stream of hacks, slashes, blocks, and dodges for about ten minutes. Finally, Charlie saw the last of the surviving vamps head out of the side door. He started to head after them, still worked up from the battle, when he noticed two groups of the armored men surrounding the remaining four wendigos.

The armored men were steadily firing the stake-guns at the wendigos. The wendigos were in pain; they were starting to look like wendigo pincushions. But Charlie knew they wouldn't kill the monsters. Charlie was going to intervene when two armored men stepped forward; each took aim with a weapon that was drastically different from the stake-guns.

The stake-gun looked more or less like a standard M-16. Charlie had even noticed the armor wearers replacing magazines like a regular M-16. But these guns he saw now looked like a metal sawed off shotgun. Both of the guns fired almost simultaneously as the group of armor wearers quickly backed away from the wendigos. They spewed what looked like several electrical arcs.

The wendigos were enveloped in the blue arcs, and fell to the ground shaking. An armor wear from each group kneeled next to the wendigos and administered a blue fluid from huge syringes.

The men with the electrical guns turned and aimed their weapons at Charlie. They were wearing black military looking fatigues and black mask with goggles that didn't allow the eyes to be seen. Over the fatigues they had some sort of black, plastic looking armor. The armor over the torso had a vest over it, which had several pockets and loops on it. The two that had their weapons pointed at Charlie also had side arms slung low on their thighs in nylon holsters.

First one, then the other, pulled the mask and goggles off.

_I should have known._ Charlie thought, as he looked at Finn and the girl from the alley.

"Mr. Finn." Charlie stated, as he surveyed the room, looking for a way out that didn't involve going through a platoon of armed men.

"That's Agent Finn to you, Mr. Proudstar." Finn replied with a smirk. "And I'd like to thank you for making my job easier." Charlie gave him a perplexed look, and Finn continued. "Well, first off I now have federal charges on you. You stole government property when you helped yourself to my wallet."

Charlie smirked. "You want charges? That I can give you."

Charlie started towards the two agents, forgetting all about the electric guns in their hands. Finn fired his weapon, and Charlie was instantly in agony. It felt like his skin and insides were on fire. He fell heavily to the ground.

He was still conscious, even if just barely. He couldn't move, but he could still see and hear. He saw the girl kneel over him.

"Time for you to join the other hostiles." She said as she shoved a syringe filled with the blue fluid into his neck. He lost consciousness almost immediately.


	5. Chapter 5

PART FIVE 

**THEN**

When Charlie came to, the first thing he noticed was a smell that was a mixture of garbage and saltwater. When he opened his eyes and lifted his head, he found that his vision was a little blurry and his head was swimming.

He was strapped to what felt like a metal table. He could feel straps on his arms, hands, legs, ankles, chest and neck. The room he was in was a little dark, but he could make out some medical equipment and two men in fatigues standing by the only door he could see. The agents were both holding electrical guns like the one he had been shot with.

When Charlie heard the door open a few minutes later, he picked his head up as much as he could to see who was coming into the room. It was Finn and a man in a white lab coat.

"Good, he's awake." The man in the lab coat said as he moved to do something with the medical equipment.

"Welcome to my world, Mr. Proudstar." Finn said as he moved to stand next to Charlie's head. "You could have been cooperative, that would have made things easier for both of us. And judging from what I've read about some of your past exploits; we even share some of the same goals. But you had to make things difficult."

Charlie had to clear his throat before he could reply. "What do you want with me?" He said in a shaky voice.

"Well, the agency wants to either employ you, or incarcerate you. That remains to be seen." Finn leaned down onto the table so that his face was close to Charlie's. "Me personally? I hope they use you as a guinea pig and then lock you away. You messed up when you tried to kill my wife, and I'll make sure you pay."

Charlie laughed at Finn. "You can't keep me tied to a table forever Finn. And you can bet your ass that when I get loose, I'm coming for you."

Finn just smiled at that, and turned to the man in the lab coat. "Dr. Phillips, you may begin whenever you're ready." Finn stopped at the door when he went to leave. "Make sure I get the call personally if he causes any trouble." He said to one of the agents by the door, who only gave a curt nod in reply.

The doctor started attaching electrodes to Charlie's torso and extremities. He then moved over to a computer sitting on a large metal desk next to the table Charlie was strapped on to. Charlie could hear him tapping keys.

Charlie tested his nylon bonds as discreetly as he could. He was pretty sure that he could break them if he was at full strength, but he still felt a little groggy. He looked back over to the agents. They were both staring straight ahead.

A few minutes later he heard the doctor get up from his desk. The doctor went over to a medicine cabinet and removed a syringe filled with the blue liquid and turned to walk towards Charlie.

_If I let them drug me again, I might not get another chance to get the hell out of here. _He thought, the adrenaline that was starting to course through his system was burning away the last of the drug-induced grogginess.

He jerked his arms and torso up with all of his might. The nylon didn't break, but the rivets holding it onto the metal table did. He reached out and grabbed the doctor with one hand and the syringe with the other. He pulled the much smaller man's back to his chest and put the needle to the doctor's neck.

"Make one call or move one muscle and I pump him full of this crap. And I'm assuming a dosage meant for me wouldn't be good for someone his size." Charlie said to the two agents by the door.

The agents had pointed their guns at him at the first sign of movement, but stood still for now. Charlie knew they probably wouldn't hesitate to shoot the doctor with the stun guns to get to him, which is why he had taken the syringe from him.

"Phillips, right?" Charlie asked the doctor, who barley nodded his head. "All right Dr. Phillips, undo the straps on my legs and ankles."

The doctor complied with the order, and Charlie stood up. Keeping the doctor in between himself and the agents he slowly moved towards the door. When he was close enough, he threw the doctor into one of the agents, and quickly plunged the syringe into the neck of the other. He only put about half of the blue stuff into the agent. He then turned to the other agent, who hadn't recovered from the doctor slamming into him. Charlie injected the agent with the remainder of the blue substance.

Charlie wished one of the agents was closer to his size so he could steal his clothes. All he currently had on were his underwear. He did take one of the guns before he headed out the door.

The door lead into a hallway. The floors, walls, doors, and ceiling were all made of metal. When the floor started swaying slightly under Charlie's feet, it finally dawned on him that he was on some sort of big ship.

_Hopefully the ship's docked somewhere and not in the middle of the Atlantic. _Charlie thought as he made his way through the bowels of the dark ship.

When he rounded the next corner he came up behind a man in fatigues and a t-shirt. Charlie quickly lashed out with the butt of the gun, catching the agent behind the left ear. The agent dropped to the ground unconscious before he knew anything had hit him.

Charlie drug the man into the nearest door, which happened to lead to small, one stall bathroom. Charlie sat the man up on the toilet, and closed the stall door. He then made his way back out into the hall and moved as silently as he could.

He finally came to a set of small stairs with a door at the top. Charlie could see sunlight filtering through a small, dirty, circular window at the top of the door. Charlie silently made his way up the metal steps and peered out of the window.

He was disheartened when he noticed that they were quite some distance from land. He didn't see anyone on the deck though, so he made his way through the door, which creaked slightly when he pushed it open, and onto the deck. Once on the deck he realized that he wasn't as far from land as he had originally feared.

"Freeze!" Charlie heard from behind him. When he turned around, he saw several agents on another deck higher than the one he was standing on. They all had weapons pointed at him, some had the stun guns and some had stake guns. Charlie looked from the agents to the side of the deck.

He was still trying to judge if he could make it into the water before he was filled with stakes when Finn came out of the door Charlie had came out of.

"Going somewhere Mr. Proudstar?" Finn asked.

Charlie shrugged. "Thought I'd go for a swim."

Finn shook his head as he walked closer to Charlie. "Even if you did get away, we're a Federal agency. You'd be hounded from one corner of the earth to the other. You can't win here. Ever hear the old saying, if you can't beat 'em join em?"

Charlie started to turn to run towards the side of the ship and he heard a shot from behind him a split second before something hit the deck right beside him. He looked up at the higher deck and recognized the red haired guy with the flattop that had been in the alley.

"You're lucky." Finn informed Charlie. "Graham normally doesn't fire warning shots. Try that again and he's going to put a stake in your ear." Finn had moved closer to Charlie, while his attention was diverted to Graham.

"You scared to face me by yourself?" Charlie stated, trying to goad Finn into making a bad decision.

"There's a big difference between bravery and stupidity." Finn replied, not taking the bait.

Charlie reached out as quickly as he could and grabbed Finn by his sweater. He turned him so that he was in between himself and the guns of the agents on the other deck. While he had one arm around Finn's neck, he put the barrel of the stun gun into the small of Finn's back.

"Call them off." Charlie ordered Finn.

"Not a chance." Finn replied. "A shot at point blank range from an E-25 will hurt like hell, but it isn't lethal."

"The gun is the least of your worries." Charlie informed his captive. "If you don't call them off, I'm going to pull you apart."

"I don't think so." Came the voice of Finn's female counterpart. When Charlie looked from the upper deck, he saw her coming out of the door.

Finn used the distraction to send an elbow straight back into Charlie's groin with all of his might. Charlie immediately let go of him. Charlie was groaning in pain, trying to regain his composure.

When he looked up, Finn was holding his tomahawk, and the girl was holding two shafts that were glowing blue on the ends. Finn threw the tomahawk to Charlie.

"You want a fair fight?" Finn asked Charlie. "Tell you what, the two of us against you. You win, you go for today. We win, you start cooperating with us." The girl tossed one of the shafts to Finn as they started circling Charlie.

Charlie blocked the first blow that the girl threw with the head of his tomahawk and while her weapon was over her head, he snapped a kick into her midsection, sending her across the deck. Finn had the reaction Charlie had expected, and came in with a wild swing at his head.

Charlie leapt backwards just far enough for the shaft to miss him. Charlie then swung his tomahawk and planted the flat side of it on the left side of Finn's face. Finn then hit the ground in a heap, swelling already starting to temporarily disfigure his features.

When Charlie looked back up, the girl was on her feet again and coming towards him. When she was within range, she did a quick sidekick to Charlie's ribs. He felt the impact, but it didn't really hurt. She used that distraction to swing up at Charlie's head with the shaft.

Charlie grabbed the shaft just below where it was glowing blue. The girl reached up and grabbed the shaft with her other hand attempting to break his grip on it. While both of her hands were occupied, Charlie reached out with his free hand and grabbed the girl by the neck. He threw her into the doorway she had come out of and listened for movement within, he didn't hear any.

With both of his adversaries down, Charlie started making his way towards the side of the ship. He didn't make it more than a couple of steps when he heard the shot and felt a sharp pain in his right leg. He looked down to see one of the small wooden stakes protruding from his leg. Charlie roared in agony as he turned to look at the other agents standing on the higher deck.

"Didn't you hear Finn?" Charlie bellowed at them.

The redhead nodded. "I heard him, and that was his command decision. I'm in command now and I say that you aren't going anywhere."

Charlie began to run as fast as he could, trying to calm himself as he ran. It wasn't easy, because the little stakes were zipping past him. He finally calmed himself as much as he was going to be able to given his current situation and jumped. As he jumped, he released the animal from within that was his totem.

All of the agents on the higher deck were seasoned agents, it was hard to surprise them. But when the big Indian changed into a big cat in midair, they were all a little taken back. The big cat ran so fast it was a brown blur on the deck before it jumped into the water.


	6. Chapter 6

PART SIX THEN 

When Charlie woke up, he was nude and exhausted. The combination of the drugs that had been in his system, his transformation to cat form, and the long swim to shore had taxed his body to the point of exhaustion. It was night, so he was fairly certain he could sneak back into the city in his birthday suit and not be noticed until he could find some clothes.

When he sat up, he noticed that his tomahawk had been lying beside his head.

_Old habits die hard. _Charlie thought. Back when he had first learned of his puma form, he had trained himself to remember to take his weapon with when he left somewhere in puma form.

He sat up, and was rewarded with a bout of nausea and a spinning head. He sat there a minute to steady himself and eventually pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his tomahawk as he did so.

Looking around the area, Charlie noticed an area surrounded by a chain link fence with barbwire on the top. The area held hundreds of metal containers that looked like railroad cars without the wheels. Charlie recognized them as the containers used to transport things by ship.

Charlie headed towards the area, and noticed a small hole in the fence. The hole was much too small for Charlie to squeeze his massive frame through. He grabbed either side of the torn fence and ripped a hole big enough for even him to walk through.

Once inside he made his way through the first couple of isles of containers and spotted a small one story office building. Feeling exposed and wanting to get out of the open, Charlie tried the handle on the office door, which was locked. He grabbed the knob in one massive hand and turned as hard as he could. The whole knob came off in Charlie's hand.

Pushing the door open, Charlie saw that the small building held just one room. The room contained a computer desk, complete with computer, a filing cabinet, a punch clock, and a tv/dvd combo. A Star Trek screen saver was flashing images on the computer screen.

Charlie went over to the computer and moved the mouse, the screen saver dissolved to reveal a hand of unfinished solitaire. He minimized the unfinished hand to reveal a listing of the containers and a manifest of their contents. Charlie breezed through the contents until his eye caught a container of clothes headed to a Big & Tall shop.

Charlie found a sticky note pad and a pencil and recorded the number and location of the container. Scanning through some of the other containers, Charlie started chuckling to himself.

_Isn't that ironic and convenient. _Charlie thought to himself as he recorded the number and location of a container that was to be sent to an Indian motorcycle dealership.

Charlie got up and exited the small office shack and first headed towards the clothes container. After he had broken the lock, he realized that he should have searched the office for a flashlight. He had night vision that was leaps and bounds beyond a normal person, but even he needed some light to be able to see.

Once he was inside, his vision did adjust somewhat to the dark container, enough for him to read the labels if they were facing the moonlight that spilled in from the open door of the container. His first find was a crate that contained jeans in his size, he used the tomahawk to pry the top of the container off and fish out a pair of pants that were his size. Before long, he had also found some black t-shirts, socks, and some underwear.

_Too bad there weren't any shoes in there. _Charlie thought. _I really don't want to be strolling around New York City barefooted. _

Shrugging, Charlie exited that container and made his way about half way around the lot to the one that contained the motorcycles. Once he had it opened, he saw that there were about a dozen motorcycles strapped into racks and several crates in the back of the container.

Charlie made his way to the crates in the back first. Charlie was once again thankful for his dumb luck when he read on the labels that the crates contained leather jackets, motorcycle boots, saddle bags, and other motorcycle accessories. Charlie opened the crates and found a jacket and boots that fit, and he also opened one to remove a set of saddlebags and a leather bound bedroll.

Charlie moved over to the bikes next. He found one painted in red and black and trimmed in chrome. Once he removed the clear plastic sheet, he again thanked his lucky stars because the keys were in the ignition. Charlie removed the restraints that were on the back and rolled it out of the container and into the moonlit night.

After he had attached the saddlebags and bedroll, he rolled the bike to the hole he had torn in the fence. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Charlie rolled the bike down the dock and into the parking lot. Straddling the bike, Charlie started it and maneuvered it out of the parking lot and onto the deserted side street that led from the docks back into the city.

An hour or so later Charlie had almost made it back to the night club. He parked the bike when he was still several blocks from the club, in case the government boys had the place under surveillance.

Charlie made his way into an alley and climbed a fire escape to the roof. From there Charlie traveled roof top to roof top until he was on the building that stood across the street from the night club. Before he could make his way to the ledge that faced the nightclub, he saw something move between two air conditioning units.

Charlie lowered his body into a crouch and sat still for a moment, waiting to see the movement again. It didn't take long for Charlie to grow impatient in waiting for the movement. He quietly made his way through the various air units on the roof until he was almost right next to the two in question.

Charlie cautiously peeked his head around the air unit to the right, and saw a man in fatigues lying in the prone position, looking at the night club across the street through the scope of a rifle. Charlie made a quick sweep of the roof with his keen eyes, but didn't see anyone else. Charlie then looked down onto the street itself, and spotted a blue van with the windows blacked out, and several black sedans with dark tinted windows.

Charlie knew he couldn't win the battle on this day. It burned Charlie's insides to walk away from any battle, but he was wise enough to avoid most of the ones he couldn't win.

Charlie carefully and quietly made his way back to his recently acquired motorcycle. As he straddled it, he came to the realization that the Agents, especially Finn, wouldn't stop until they either killed or recruited him.

With that, Charlie started the bike, and headed towards the freeway.

**(This brings the story back to the present, with the next notable thing happening at the begining of Chapter 1.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**PART SEVEN**_

Charlie shook his head to clear it of the thoughts of his recent past. He had passed the Mississippi Alabama line a few hours back and was now driving through the Bienville national forest in Mississippi. He slowed the bike down and coasted onto the gravel that lined the road on either side. He squinted into the fading sun, considering whether it was worth it to risk checking into a motel for the night.

Deciding against risking the motel, Charlie eased down the road a little further until he came to a hiking trail that led off into the darkening woods. Charlie rode the motorcycle down a couple of hundred yards until he came to a clearing.

After he had put down his bedroll and taken off his boots, he decided to go hunting and eat some fresh meat for a change. He used his knife to sharpen a stout oak branch and returned an hour or so later with two rabbits and two pockets full of chestnuts. He soon had a small fire going and set to work skinning the rabbits.

With a belly full of rabbit and roasted chestnuts, Charlie stretched out on his bedroll and stared at the starry night sky.

"Nice night."

Charlie vaulted up from the ground and was instantly ready for action. He had no idea how someone had snuck into his camp, but he was ready for whoever it was.

That was when he noticed the shimmering blue figure sitting cross legged across the fire from him.

"Nate?" Charlie asked, the doubt clear in his voice.

Nathaniel "Nate" Shadow-Dancer, a former Totem Warrior, had been Charlie's spirit guide for a couple of years after he had received his Totem powers. Nate had suddenly and mysteriously quit appearing to him. Charlie had still had dreams, until recently, that urged him in certain directions, and he had always suspected that Nathaniel was responsible for them.

"Afraid so." Said the spirit as he stared wistfully into the fire. "How've you been Charlie?"

"Good I guess. I'm still alive." Charlie stumbled in response.

Nathaniel smirked. "That's always a good thing. How's business?"

"Slow lately." Charlie responded. "The damn government is hot on my heels. I can't risk stopping anywhere long enough to be much of a help to anyone."

Nathaniel nodded his head. "So I've seen."

"Where the hell have you been?" Charlie said in an almost yell before he could stop himself.

"Out of reach." Nathaniel stated. "Look Charlie I can't explain everything, but things started happening that required my full attention. Mainly the fact that in the last few years there have 18 new Totem warriors, now you're the only one again."

Charlie stared at him for a moment before Nathaniel continued.

"Out of those eighteen, the longest lived was a little over a year."

"What happened?" Charlie asked, as his anger at Nathaniel dissipated.

"That's just it, most of them died at the hands of minor demons or vampires. The minions have been doing them in, and I can't figure out why Charlie." Nathaniel looked sadder than Charlie had ever seen the usually cheerful spirit look.

"I mean, look at you." Nathaniel continued, gesturing at Charlie. "You've been in more fights and full fledged battles than anyone can count, and now you've got a major black ops agency after you. But you're still alive and doing a good job of staying that way."

They both sat in silence for a while before Nathaniel continued. "How do you do it Charlie? What makes you so different from these kids I keep sending to their deaths?"

Charlie pondered the question for a moment. "Do you remember what I was like when I first got my powers?"

Nathaniel nodded with a smirk. "You were cocky, headstrong, hard to get along with, and lived for a fight, preferably one where you could kill something."

"And if you'll remember I wasn't much different before I got my powers."

Nathaniel nodded again, clearly confused at the direction Charlie was taking. "SO are you saying we need to choose more psychos?" Nathaniel added weakly.

Charlie shook his head before he continued. "No, what I'm getting at is that I led a rough life before I got my powers. I was already used to looking out for myself. Being in orphanages in ten states in ten years will do that to you."

"I think I see where your twisted mind is going with this." Nathaniel responded, teasing Charlie. "You were more prepared for the powers because of your upbringing. That actually makes sense."

Nathaniel stared intently into the fire before continuing. "I need your help Charlie. I need six more warriors, and I want you to help me choose them."

Charlie stared at Nathaniel with a look of horror on his face. "Come on Nate, I don't play well with others, you know that. Especially when the others are kids. Not to mention the fact that I've got the government hot on my heels."

Nathaniel nodded again. "Yeah, you'll have to do something about that. But I might be able to help. But if I do, you'll have to agree to not only assist in the choosing but in training them as well."

Charlie was beginning to think that he was having a nightmare. The last thing on earth he wanted to do was go looking for kids to train and annoy him. But he also considered that fact that when Nathaniel offered something he always came through on his end.

"You really think you can help with the goon squad?" Charlie asked reluctantly.

Nathaniel nodded. "I may be able to do something."

Charlie still wasn't sure it was a good idea, but Nathaniel had never steered him wrong in the past. "Where are the damn kids going to be needed at?"

"Grizzly Peak, it's in southern Oregon."

"It'll take me a while to drive there."

"That's ok; you can look for prospects along the way."

"I still don't know if this is such a good idea Nate." Charlie said as he glanced up at a shooting star. But when he only received silence as a response, he glanced back down to discover that he was again alone by the fire.

I hate it when he does that." Charlie grumbled as he lay back down to go to sleep.


End file.
